Thursday, January 03, 2008

On re-viewing rare moments and snakes

"If a day goes by without my doing something related to voodles, it's as though I've neglected something essential to my existence, as though I had forgotten to wake up. To me, voodling is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them...The fact that it wasn’t really considered an art, that it was considered some sort of novel amusement or trivial craft, has trapped almost every serious vlogger."Sometimes toiling with the actual essence of making voodles, Sam Renseiw montaged footage from a re-view of a rare moment at a recent exhibition. View the ambiguous cut-up, complete with fine "negative" soundtrack, by clicking here or on the links above. (patafilm # 555, 01'43'',10MB, Quicktime/mov - other versions at Blip.tv)Today's Bonus Lumiere video features two known characters, framed by A. ( Lum # 72, " A's marilyn and satchmo at L " 00'59'' 6.1MB, Quicktime/mov) All other's fine lumieres at the main site.

So many times the problem of seriousness posed by artistic creation is not only a gift but also a burden.

I think that it is not whether we are serious that is the issue, but what we are serious about.

The way of Tolstoi at the end of his life, regarding the arts altogether as insufficiently "serious", is one dead end.

The trivialization of observation as insufficiently "serious" is another dead end.

The authentic experience we seek to have by what we see is in itself a serious thing. If I could learn to see and to participate in what I have seen, then I would feel neither the burden nor the frivolous self-gratification of seriousness as such an issue.

yes, indeed: it sort of becomes self-referentially pathetic, the so called reflections on the act of seeing, posted as "absurd" quotes with the videos.

yet, i feel that the "work" sort of has to follow the impulsive "diary" montaging and posting to keep it fresh, alive and open to various translations, if at all.

what may seem to be seriously though about regarding textual embedding in the posts, might just be an impulsive transcendent game, subjected to some tight, self-imposed dead-lines, OuLiPo wise... that makes the postings challenging...

it possibly is also a way to obliquely approach the blog medium, trying to find other ways to transcendate the seriousness of posting "meaning"... indeed, it sort of became straight-jacket, yet a challenging, frivolous one.

the video "voodles" are the real, and only work. the accompanying texts are just some sort of frosting, for something that might stand actually just better stand for/by itself...

still struggling with the matter... lets see what i can come up with next, in the many futile attempts trying truly to observe...subjectively.

thank you very much for the comments :-) so generous of you to participate, and to be concerned.

I used to wonder about posting text notes on a separate parallel blog, and keeping the video blog All Video.

In your case - as you say - it might be frosting, and the real work might stand better for/by itself in some senses, but in other ways it works. i find my compulsion to read notes next to art in galleries irritating, but i am equally irritated when there are no notes to read. a way in. even if (especially if?) absurd and abstract. declaration of spirit and intention. to stop the casual viewer and say This Is This. Pay Attention. or something. Det ved jeg ikke. (I raided a Danish phrasebook for that)

Another thought - without the notes and discussion in the comments, I maybe wouldn't have spent time reading about Pataphysics on the web after coming back to your site this New Year, and thinking about your work in that context. Jeg er en britisk statsborger. Det var en misforståelse. Hvor tager I mig hen?

as i, for many years now, have been dabbling with pataphysics, and wordplay/short writings in various projects, using OuLiPo startagems, i found that equally useful to use when trying to find quotes and especially editing the videos..

the absurd can often be quite appropriate, when meeting reality, that more than once can be seemingly quite anachronistic, yet fully modern, and up-to-date.

To me, voodling is an art of observation. It's about finding something interesting in an ordinary place... I've found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them...

that's it. that's everything. i can't be more eloquent in a comment box. perhaps an email to follow.

About Me

'Pataphysics, an absurdist concept coined by the French writer Alfred Jarry, is a philosophy dedicated to studying what lies beyond the realm of metaphysics. Defined as: "The science of imaginary solutions, which symbolically attributes the properties of objects, described by their virtuality, to their lineaments". SPACETWO : PATALAB has functioned in this spirit since 2005 as a dynamic, experimental visual / spatial research laboratory run by SAM RENSEIW. Laced with quotes and useful links, Patalab02 is a forum for subtle, intriguing, complex, enchantingly moving imagery experiments exploring body-space morphologies and other architectures. Enjoy! All posting are videos. Click on the image or the appropriate link in the text to enter. For a view of older videos, see the archive link.